Honours Awarded:
British Academy, Small Research Grant 2010
Visiting Scholar, St John’s College, Oxford 2009
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 2006
Love Prize for the best article published in British history in 2002
(with Dr Margaret Sankey) 2002
Distinguished Graduate Faculty Lecturer, Auburn 2001
Member, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton 1998
Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh 1997
Panhellenic Council Award for Outstanding Teaching, Auburn University 1997
Robert Reid Award for Teaching Excellence, Auburn University 1995
Alumni Professor, Auburn University, 1994
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 1984
Gibbons Prize, Faculty of Arts, University of Sheffield 1979
Wellings Prize in Modern History, University of Sheffield 1977

Current Employment:
Professor of Early Modern History, University of Manchester

Previous Posts: from to
Professor of History, Auburn University, Alabama 1988 2007
Visiting Professor, Air War University, Maxwell AFB, AL 1998 1999
College Lecturer in Modern History, 1986 1988
St John’s College, Oxford
Lecturer in History (temporary), 1985 1986
University of Hull
University Research Fellow, University 1982 1985
of Sheffield

Writer for the History News Service of the American Historical Association. Articles published in (amongst others): South Bend Tribune; Salt Lake Tribune; Cincinnati Post; Sacramento Bee; The News and Observer (Raleigh, NC); The Buffalo News; The Tallahassee Democrat.
‘Apologising for History’, 2000
‘What Victory in Yugoslavia May Mean for Future Wars’, 1999
‘Uneasy Lies the Head that Sleeps in the White House...’, 1998
‘Ending the War in Northern Ireland’, 1998
‘Glory and the New World Order’, 1997

Major Papers Presented:
‘James III and VIII and Catholic Kingship’, British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies
St Hugh’s College, Oxford January 2011
‘1708: Scotland’s Lost Revolution?,’ North American Conference on British Studies
Baltimore November 2010
‘Towards an Analytical Model of Military Effectiveness for the Early Modern Period: the Military Dynamics of Rebellions 1500-1800,’ Glasgow War Studies Seminar
Glasgow October 2010
‘Scottish Jacobitism in International Context,’ Edinburgh University Scottish Studies Seminar
Edinburgh September 2010
‘Scotland and European Great Power Strategy,’ Scotland’s Global Impact Conference, the Highland Homecoming
Inverness October 2009
‘Scotland’s Lost Revolution? Versailles, St Germain and the Scots Jacobite Underground in 1708’, Inaugural lecture
University of Manchester March 2009
‘Jacobite Politics in the Age of Anne’, History of Parliament Trust Conference on Holmes in Retrospect
London November 2007
‘Retrieving Captain Le Cocq’s Plunder: Plebeian Scots and the Aftermath of the 1715 Rebellion’, Jacobite Studies Trust Conference, British Academy,
London June 2007
‘Jamestown in English Context’, Emory and Henry College Lyceum
Abingdon, Virginia February 2007
‘“Une Nation Fort Porter Aux Changemens”: the French Understanding of English Politics in 1715’, Western Society for French History
Lubbock, Texas October 2004
‘The Image of the Court. Idealism, Politics and the Evolution of the Stuart Court 1689-1730’, Stuart Court in Exile 1689-1766 conference
Edinburgh June 2001
‘The Jacobite Interpretation of Defeat’, American Society for Eighteenth Century Studies confererence
Philadelphia April 2000
‘Reflections on the Decline of Scottish Jacobitism 1716-1745', International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies conference
Dublin, Ireland July 1999
‘A Blueprint for Tyranny? Sir Edward Hales and the Catholic Jacobite Response to the Revolution of 1688', North American Conference on British Studies
Colorado Springs October 1998
‘Image and Reality in History: the Battle of Culloden Reconsidered’, Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton January 1998
‘Jacobitism and the Historians: Historical Methodology and the Problem of Dealing with Lies, Evasion and Silence’, Graduate seminar in British Studies
Munich June 1997
‘‘I am so Uneasie to Hear How You Are’: the Jacobite Refugee Experience and its Impact on the Scottish Jacobite Mind, 1715-1728', North American Conference on British Studies
Chicago October 1996
‘Constructing a Jacobite: the Social and Intellectual Origins of George Lockhart of Carnwath’, ECSSS Conference on Jacobitism and the Enlightenment and the 1995 SCBS Conference
Aberdeen/New Orleans July/October 1995
‘Defending the True Faith: Kirk, State and Catholic Missioners in Scotland 1653-1755', North American Conference on British Studies
Vancouver October 1994
‘The Politics of Peace, 1689-1715', St Germain Exhibition Colloquium
Paris February 1992
‘The Jacobite Theatre of Death’, 2nd Jacobite Conference
Durham University July 1987
‘Scotland as an English ‘Problem’: Nationalism and Imperialism in Britain, 1670-1745'
Cambridge April 1986
‘Political Violence in Augustan England: Terror in an Honour-Code Society’
University of Sheffield May 1985
‘The Tory Heart of Darkness: Jacobitism and the Tory Party’
University of East Anglia March 1985
‘Overthrowing Antichrist: problems of rebellion after 1660 and the failure of the Good Old Cause.’
U.C.L.A., Los Angeles March 1983
‘‘Our Rebellious Kingdoms’: the view from St Germains’
Oxford February 1981

Research Interests:
For the past three decades my research has focused on the history of the eighteenth century British Isles broadly interpreted (i.e. from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century), and within that era, on Jacobitism and Scotland. Though I started out as a new political historian primarily concerned with the sociology of the first Tory party, my growing interest in Jacobitism led to my research expanding to take in the entire range of the phenomenon from theology to art, though I am obviously more au fait with some areas than others! By contrast, I developed my fascination with all aspects of early eighteenth-century Scotland later in my career, after researching Scottish politics around the time of the Act of Union of 1707, and Scottish history is now the driving force behind my research and writing.

Teaching Areas:
Undergraduate: Seventeenth and eighteenth-century British History; Military History
Graduate: British History 1660-1783; Early Modern Europe